


Set it Running Free

by WyrmLivvy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Animagus, Auror Harry Potter, M/M, Parseltongue, Undercover, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 02:39:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13137372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WyrmLivvy/pseuds/WyrmLivvy
Summary: Before the undercover mission had even started, Harry had been nervous and it was only worse now that he was in the middle of it. At twenty-seven, he was no longer the inexperienced Auror he had been at the beginning of his twenties, but each assignment was different. Though it may share a theme with past ones, factors changed.Harry wasn’t the novice, but Tom was, and he was playing the leading part now while Harry was curled up on the younger man’s lap.





	Set it Running Free

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SkyBlueSiha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkyBlueSiha/gifts).



> This is my tomarry discord chat secret santa gift for Sky. Sorry this is a WIP, this is what I have so far and I'll have the rest later. orz 
> 
> I had other ideas for what secret santa fic to write but in the end I decided to write a creature fic because I watched The Shape of Water and then I saw The Last Jedi and the Canto Bight arc dug itself into my brain. (I’m basically admitting I procrastinated alot <_<) So the two tumbled in my mind and influenced this messy thing into being. 
> 
> **Content warnings: Huge abuse, exploitation and death warning for this entire fic. Cannibalism, gore mention. Politics.**

Before the undercover mission had even started, Harry had been nervous and it was only worse now that he was in the middle of it. At twenty-seven, he was no longer the inexperienced Auror he had been at the beginning of his twenties, but each assignment was different. Though it may share a theme with past ones, factors changed. 

Harry wasn’t the novice, but Tom was, and he was playing the leading part now while Harry was curled up on the younger man’s lap. 

As an Auror, for the most part, Tom did clerical work, and once a month he had the night off, and the following day too, for recovery reasons. When he would have the time off shifted and followed the phases of the moon. This was because Tom was a werewolf. 

He wasn’t ever partnered with anyone but Harry, who among the Aurors was one of the few who knew of his condition. There was also Tonks, who figured it out due to her familiarity since her husband was one, and the Head Auror, who was good at keeping secrets. He knew Harry was an Animagus and an unregistered one at that, but he thought it more to the Auror Office’s advantage that it not be made public knowledge Harry could turn into a large snake. Better that it be a hidden skill for use in their mission to capture wizards who committed dangerous and harmful crimes. 

Harry was a snake right now, hence why it wasn’t so strange for him to be on Tom’s lap, or the pureblood wizard Tom was speaking to would have been not be as open as he was being. 

Selwyn was seated behind a large, ornate desk on an equally ornate chair and had a creature resting its head on his lap himself. But unlike Harry, the wampus didn’t have a choice. The mountain lion sized, cat-like creature had a collar around its neck that must have been very expensive, because the function was to render the creature tame and obedient. 

It was not unusual for Tom to have Harry around, because Tom was pretending to be a pureblood and other attending pureblood wizards had creatures as status symbols. 

Harry could get away with occasionally hissing. It was just a random creature noise to Selwyn, like how the wampus sometimes gave flat, joyless purrs. 

Harry had seen a Niffler kept on a leash and held by a man how one would a pocket-watch, and treated like a wallet that the man pulled Galleons out of. It was one of the smaller cruelties. He had seen a bridled kelpie, struggling to cantor along as it had a fraction of the water it needed to comfortably navigate the underground building this illegal gathering was taking place in. Someone had brought an adolescent dragon. It had been kept on a chain, its snout muzzled, and its wings bound. 

If anything, Harry’s presence helped, because Tom had to appear to have the same disregard for the legality or ethics of keeping dangerous, law protected creatures as pets. 

Selwyn was talking business with Tom - or rather Marvolo, Tom’s false identity. 

The business in question was the running of bloodsports. Muggles had dog fights, but wizards did it bigger and involved magical creatures. Like its muggle counterpart, it was illegal in the United Kingdom but there were still underground matches and secret invitations. It mostly involved werewolves. 

Though the current Minister and his government were trying to shift the tide, muggleborns and werewolves were still vulnerable and distinctly classes of people discriminated against in magical society. In the case of werewolf fights the groups overlapped. 

Werewolves often lived alone and isolated from larger society. They struggled to hold down jobs once employers figured out the pattern of requested days off or missed work days. Many people did not want werewolves for neighbors, nor did landlords want them for tenants. Werewolves were often disowned by their family. Thus, the population was vulnerable to kidnappings, which more often than not went unreported, with non-werewolves largely apathetic. 

The kidnapped werewolves ended up a part of undertakings usually run by purebloods like a business. Step one: Acquire werewolves. Step two: Create a huge pit, put seating above it. Step three: Sell tickets to the werewolf fights. Step four: Profit. 

A clear winner is seen if one werewolf is killed by the other. Sometimes a winner is declared in the fights if one simply collapses. If the losing werewolf survives, it can fight later if it’s not hurt too badly. Otherwise it’s put down if it’s not worth the price or trouble. 

The business requires more werewolves to continue running, to keep the Galleons flowing. If there is demand, there is supply. This was where muggleborns came in. In some ways, muggleborns had the same isolation issues werewolves did. Muggleborns often lacked the connections to magical society that purebloods were born with and halfbloods could have or not depending on which groups of family they were raised with. Muggleborns who finish their magical education may still feel out of place in magical society, or unwelcome, due to the attitudes of purebloods, and as a result chose to return to and live in muggle society. It may also be easier for them to live a comfortable life there, with the advantage of magic they possess. However, a return to muggle society meant, in the eyes of the magical law, that if they went missing it was the muggle society’s jurisdiction to investigate, and the magical world does not often check on the muggle. If already existing werewolves weren’t abducted, more were created through the deliberate exposure of abducted muggleborns to werewolf bites on a full moon night. 

Harry knew all this because he’s had to research it. He witnessed it too, five years ago, when he had rescued Tom. And now they were trying to locate and rescue two muggleborn boys who had been kidnapped, a pair of brothers, Colin and Dennis Creevey. 

Selwyn was discussing avenues he looked to in the sourcing of werewolves with Tom, and Harry tried hard not to be disgusted and enraged into attacking the wealthy pureblood. 

The conversation was anything but one-sided for Marvolo had much input of his own. 

Muggleborns were a popular source, Tom said. But for easy targets, there were also the halfbloods. Especially the orphans. 

Halfbloods with a pureblood parent and a muggle or _mudblood_ parent. Sometimes such unions resulted in the pureblood being disowned or estranged by their family, or even wizarding society at large. The couple goes to live somewhere else apart from the families they come from. They have a child, or children. Suppose something happens to the parents, what is the child left with? There was the likelihood of there being no other caretaker or guardian. Suppose, after the pureblood had already been expelled from their family, that the other parent, a muggle, were to discover their lover was a wizard or witch and abandoned them? It’d be a struggle, even fewer resources left, and the mental resources would be drained. They’d be weakened. These kind of families were vulnerable. Easy pickings.

Children fell between the cracks, some end up in muggle orphanages. In such places there’s no family to claim or protect them. If they go missing who’s going to kick up too much of a fuss? Muggles don’t understand magic and they’re likely already scared of such children and dislike them. To have them gone, it’s a relief, a gift practically. They’re not going to spend too much resources trying to find them, and not like muggles even could if they wanted to, since the kidnappers were wizards. Tom's tone was calm and unaffected, stating little facts that needed to be analyzed for efficiency and promise of great returns.

There was no empathy or sympathy for these children from Selwyn. What the pureblood wizard does care about though was how much money the kids would bring him once they were transformed into werewolves. 

Harry resisted the urge to tear Selwyn’s throat open. Werewolves, even when not transformed, had a higher body temperature than people normally did. Tom was warm and pleasant to his lizard brain and he tried to focus on that even as he was disturbed. 

Tom was very believable, and so charismatic and casual about the topic he was discussing, of kidnapping children, turning them into werewolves, and enslaving them for death matches against other children who had gone through the same process. To make money off of it.

This was an act to get Selwyn to spill the information they needed. He did not know, but Harry did, that some of the details coming out of Tom’s mouth was his own, real background. 

Tom had been steering the conversation in that direction but Selwyn brought the name up first. 

“I wish I could find the next Lord Voldemort. I heard he was a halfblood sourced from a muggle orphanage.” Selwyn sighed wistfully. Harry could practically see the Galleons dancing in the pureblood’s mind’s eye. Harry hissed angrily. 

The wampus softly hissed in response, raising its head and showing a brief note of energy in its otherwise zombie-like demeanor. 

Tom chuckled and ran a hand along Harry’s body in a movement that meant _calm down_. Tom was a Parselmouth and he had no problem understanding Harry, but he could not openly speak Parseltongue, not in front of Selwyn. At the moment, he was limited to touch for communicating back. 

Selwyn patted the wampus’ head and looked at Marvolo quizzically. 

“He’s a fan,” Tom explained, “He _loves_ Lord Voldemort. When I tell him about the matches I’ve seen, he responds when he hears about Voldemort winning. He understands me, or at least I think he does.” Tom said, “One can’t usually communicate to snakes.”

Selwyn likely did not think Tom attempting to speaking to his snake was strange because the man spoke to the wampus himself though the creature’s responses were random or indifferent. Slewyn nodded, agreeing that Parselmouths were rare. He continued speaking of Voldemort, of his past matches, his kills. How tall, powerful and vicious the champion werewolf fighter was. Then, one match in particular was brought up.

Voldemort vs Silas.

The last match before Lord Voldemort, a champion that had won over a dozen matches including seven kills, had vanished. A werewolf was considered good if they survived even three. Such exploitation shorted their lives very quickly. 

_“Tom, it wasssn’t your fault.”_ Harry hissed, _“You were sssstarved."_

It was like what the Romans did. Lions were starved beforehand, to make them desperate and eager for a bite to eat, giving the gladiators tougher opponents. 

“I was there at that match and I saw it happen. It was well worth the 500 Galleon ticket,” Slewyn said proudly, and with relish, as if he had seen a once in a lifetime event, “When Voldemort bit Silas’s head off, and ate it!” 

Harry had been there too. He saw. 

Harry had been twenty one, a newly hired, reckless Auror. Harry had infiltrated the event and saved Tom from a werewolf fighting ring, and now new groups were springing up again.

Back then, Tom had been sixteen, and he’s twenty-one now, the age Harry was then. Tom had romantic designs on his rescuer and Harry had rejected Tom for many reasons. Because of his age and the fact Tom was just infatuated with his savior. He had went through alot of trauma and abuse, and obviously wasn’t in his right mind and decided to hyperfocus onto the first good thing he saw. Harry figured it’d fade, that Tom would return to a normal life, or as normal a one he could get. However, Tom was twenty-one now and still obsessed with him. 

Tom went to his therapy appointments, like he promised Harry, and Tom denied stalking Harry. If it was stalking it would have been more obvious, wouldn’t it? Instead, Tom had kept his Auror training a secret for years, until he passed and showed up at Harry’s workplace as a new co-worker. At least now that they were working together Tom was surprisingly professional, around Harry and everyone else. 

Still, it was clear that Harry mattered the most to Tom. The thing Tom was second most obsessed with was destroying any werewolf fighting rings that still existed or would exist. His Auror job allowed him proximity to both. 

The ticket Tom had waved to get in the secret underground gathering had been secured by a disguised Tonks though she was not a part of this mission herself, because Tom had insisted he be the one to go with Harry. 

“I saw it too,” Tom said, “In fact, I think I had the best seat. It was like a first-hand account.” 

Tom smiled and if Harry had his regular mouth he would have screamed. Tom's just like that, Harry reminded himself. That’s his humor, that’s how he _copes_. This just clashed horribly with what Harry remembered of Tom's sobbing when he told Harry that no, they could not be friends because he had eaten his friend's head so Harry could not be his friend because that's what happened to Tom's friends. Harry had to be his lover, because he's never had a lover before and therefore didn't have a history of harming someone with such a role. Later, Tom thankfully accepted having Harry be a co-worker, because he didn't have an experience with those either, so that was safe. 

Tom and Selwyn discussed the fine balance of starving a creature to make them meaner, but not too much in the case their fighting capability became severely diminished. 

Tom appeared unaffected and detached from the topic at hand. Like it wasn’t personal. The circles he was rubbing in Harry’s skin meant, _I’m fine._

“Lord Voldemort…he’ll stay an undisputed champion, never officially unseated. Who knows where is is now? Could be living, likely dead, taken away by that blasted interloper,” Selwyn said. “He probably had him euthanized.” 

Harry recognized that Tom was taking great offense, not at being said to be euthanized, but that Harry had done something like that. Tom’s fingers were hidden in Harry’s coils or Selwyn might have realized what danger he was in. Tom was _pissed_.

 _“Tom, it'ss okay,”_ Harry hissed, _“He’ss jusst a nassty bassstard, ssspewing bullsshit.”_

Tom lessened the pressure and curled his fingers over Harry’s scales, the touch apologetic. Harry couldn't help but wriggle a bit, he was affected by the points of warmth the press of fingers provided, especially since it was a werewolf's touch. Because it was Tom. He hoped Tom hadn't noticed. 

Tom was looking at Selwyn, his expression schooled into a friendly one that was interested in what the elder wizard had to say.

“I miss Lord Voldemort. Things were exciting then.” Selwyn said, oblivious to the fact that the werewolf was seated right across from him. 

Tom was wearing a glamour, or he would have frightened Selwyn too much. The glamour kept Tom’s dark eyes and sharp cheekbones but hid his numerous scars, lack of nose and bald head by giving him flawless skin, an aristocratic nose and thick, dark wavy hair. How Tom normally looked was evidence of what he had gone through. In one match, his nose had been torn off and could not be recovered so the entire thing was gone and two slits were left. The overall stress of his ordeal had resulted in permanent hair loss. 

This was what Tom normally looked like at work so besides Harry, no one was particularly eager to interact with him, except Moody, who had scars of his own and probably suspected what Tom was but never said it or harassed him about it, and Tonks, who sometimes unfortunately and unintentionally copied his features. Admittedly, it had been bad the first time he met her because he had caught the scent of another werewolf - Remus, and that had activated his fighting and survival instincts. Tonks survived scar-free because Tom wasn't transformed and she had transformed into Harry. Tom had stopped in his tracks. 

Tom was a very disturbing werewolf to look at when he was transformed, skeletal with little hair and a nub of a snout that was still full of sharp teeth. Harry’s seen this since Tom became his co-worker and Harry’s regularly kept Tom company on the nights he transformed. Harry did this in his snake animagus form of course, which was safer and speedier, and really distracted Tom and gave him something to chase. It occupied Tom through the night, so he did not attack anyone, or himself. 

“Just goes to show that quality matters more than quantity. Lord Voldemort was a halfblood werewolf,” Tom remarked, “I hear you’ve captured two mudbloods you’re planning to change into werewolves,” Tom said with a distinctly unimpressed air. He had managed to manipulate the topic toward the goal of locating the Creeveys again. 

Tom was a phenomenal actor, and maybe he could have been one had his life been different. Harry had seen Tom and knew what he had been like during those early months of freedom. How Tom was traumatized and could hardly believe he even had it. He was suspicious, and dangerous, and violent. He had improved slowly, with time, and therapy. Now, in front of Selwyn, it could be believed Tom had grown up privileged and wealthy, though his life had been anything but. 

Harry listened as Selwyn admitted to the holding of two muggleborns in one of his properties. He had to be unmistakably speaking of the missing Creevey brothers.

His scheme was to have the two turned into werewolves. If it went according to plan and both survived the bite, they would then be pitted against each other. Selwyn was going into detail about what good marketing fodder it was. 

“Brother vs brother,” Selwyn said, “Mudbloods, related by blood - ”

Tom waved a dismissive hand, the other he used to hold Harry tightly because Harry might have “accidentally” risen to strike Selwyn. 

“I’d be a boring fight. They’re not even adolescents.” Tom said with a mocking yawn and in a tone that conveyed the reason for his disdain wasn’t the horror of young children being made to fight to the death, but because the fact they were would make for a poor spectacle of a match. 

By this time Selwyn’s ego must have taken too much of a beating because he was trying to get it back by bragging. 

He gestured at the large cat by his side. Wampus were native to the Appalachian Mountains in North America, Selwyn said, and he had managed to smuggle into Great Britain, a very rare, colony sourced magical creature. 

It took Harry a moment to grasp what the elder wizard had said and when he did, Harry hissed the snake equivalent of a disbelieving laugh. _“Colony.”_ Selwyn meant the _United States_. 

Tom’s thumb brushed Harry’s forehead, where there were marks like forked lightning or the branches of a tree, and Harry took that to mean, _Yes, I agree. That is ridiculous._

Tom then claimed the serpent on his lap was sourced from India. 

Harry’s grandmother was from the lands within that country’s borders, but he himself had never stepped foot there, having been born and raised in the United Kingdom. 

Tom said that Harry was unique, one of a kind. That was true enough since no regular magical serpent could be like Harry’s Animagus form. 

"That colony..." the pureblood said, clearly intrigued. Selwyn looked at Tom with ill-disguised envy. Harry actually appeared to like Tom. He was willingly by his side and did not have to be collared or drugged like the wampus. 

“I’ll buy it from you,” Selwyn said, like the relationship Harry had with Tom would magically transfer if he acquired the serpent. 

_“Yesss,”_ Harry hissed. This was a good chance. _“Tom. I’ll go into the housse directly and look for the Creeveysss. Agree, but don’t appear too eager, give him a high price tag and force him to bargain lower.”_

“No,” Tom said. 

What? Harry’s jaw open in shock.

Selwyn recoiled at seeing the sharp fangs. 

_"Tom, lisssten to me."_

Tom threaded his fingers into Harry’s mouth so that if Harry closed his jaws he would certainly hurt Tom. He couldn’t speak like this. Damn it, Tom. Harry thought in disbelief. The taste of Tom's skin wasn't bad either and Harry felt guilty because of the thought he kind of liked it.

“I’m afraid I have an attachment to this one, I won’t part with him,” Tom said, removing his fingers and ducking to place a brief, dry kiss on Harry’s forehead.

Though he was a reptile at the moment Harry suddenly thought himself capable of producing his own body heat. He blushed. 

“However, I also have a Horned Serpent.” Tom said as he raised his head and made direct eye contact with Selwyn.

That statement caught Selwyn’s attention. The pureblood was obviously interested in American magical creatures considering his captive wampus. His eyes lit up greedily. 

Tom put a bit of ditz into his act. He had lost money making the wrong bets last night. There had been the kelpie and the thestral fight, which had been kind of exciting, but really, nothing could beat werewolf fights. “I have more experience with those,” Tom grinned. 

Harry hissed at yet another example of Tom’s loaded statements. He sure fucking did.

During the clash of the infamous horse-like creatures known to eat flesh, as bloodsports enthusiasts, all the wizards there had no problem with being able to see the thestral. Like many others, Tom had bet on the thestral, but the kelpie had won. 

Kelpies often took on the appearance of a horse-like creature but they were naturally shape-shifters and it had copied the thestral’s fangs and then had used them on the creature. It won when it had successfully dragged the thestral into its water territory instead of the thestral dragging it into the air. When the gore rose to the surface of the water, the spectators knew the kelpie had won. 

Truthfully, Harry wasn’t absolutely certain of Tom’s motives. Their goal was to find the missing boys, but maybe Tom wanted to see all those that exploited creatures for profit and those that watched such matches for entertainment in one place, to more easily slaughter the lot. But Tom had made it through the kelpie and thestral fight without murdering everyone in attendance. 

Wizards brought pets to this gathering but they weren’t allowed in the audience during the matches. Some of the pets, like the kelpie, were even a part of the matches. 

Last night, while people were watching the fight and the security was concentrated at the fighting pit, Harry had canvassed the place. Harry’s snake form was unusual and he could do something with his scales, activating them in a way that rendered him invisible. He still had to be careful though. He was a solid presence even if not seen and his scaly body would be invisible but not his green eyes. Unless he closed them, if someone looked they’d seen floating serpent’s eyes. 

He had been unable to find the Creeveys but now he knew where they were. 

Harry stayed silent as Selwyn negotiated the purchase of a horned serpent from Tom. Next week, Tom would travel to the one of Selwyn’s secure properties and deliver it in exchange for the price they had agreed upon. The Creeveys were held in that building. 

They exited Selwyn’s office and Harry slithered by Tom’s side. 

Once they returned to their room, Harry was going to have alot to say to him.

**Author's Note:**

> so how are y'all liking the Potter-Riddle Auror partnership so far?


End file.
